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Students build house to go

Niagara College instructors Colin Robinson guides a forklift, lifting the peak from the roof of a modular Habitat for Humanity Niagara home, built at the Welland campus and transported to its new address, on Monday April 4, 2016 in Welland, Ont. Allan Benner/Welland Tribune/Postmedia Network

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Weather wasn't a problem for Niagara College construction techniques students, despite building a house during the winter months.

After having braved the elements while building the past 10 homes for Habitat for Humanity Niagara, the college’s 70 students and faculty stayed indoors while working on their 11th home for the organization.

Monday morning the nearly complete modular home they constructed was carefully disassembled into five sections, each of them just large enough to fit through a door at the Welland campus Rankin Technology Centre.

Each of the sections was rolled outside on casters and hoisted by crane onto a flatbed truck, then delivered piece by piece to 246 Martin St. in Welland south where the home will stand for years to come.

“I equate this to building a car in a factory,” said Keith Gowans, Habitat’s chief operating officer. “You don’t build a car on your driveway, bring all the parts to it and put it together.”

It was the first time the college’s students constructed a modular home as part of its partnership with Habitat.

“This is kind of a new way for us to do it,” Gowans said, adding he’d like to see future projects constructed in much the same way, using modular construction techniques to build indoors.

“This is a really nice environment,” he said.

The cold, snowy conditions Monday as the modular home was being moved made for “the most inclement weather we’ve had to deal with from September to now,” he said.

In addition to warm, dry working conditions, Gowans said indoor construction meant students had more time to spend learning their craft while building the home.

“The students get to remain on site, so they can be here and work on the house, maybe a little bit longer than they usually do,” he said.

On past projects, travelling to and from the construction site “has always been a little bit of a challenge,” he said.

The modular design meant some unusual design elements had to be incorporated into the project.

In addition to slicing the building into five sections, the peak of the roof had to be removed to allow the building to fit through the door. And that required a unique system of roof trusses, designed to come apart in two sections that could then be reassembled on site.

“It works,” Gowans said as construction techniques students used a forklift to separate the two halves of the roof. “It goes through the doorway, which is important.”

The house will be owned by José and Claudia Palma, who fled El Salvador with their son José, and Claudia’s mother, Antonia, to escape gang violence in the South American country.

The raised bungalow was designed to meet the specific needs of the Palma family, and can be expanded to support five bedrooms with two bedrooms downstairs and three on the main floor.

Although sweat equity is a requirement of purchasing a Habitat for Humanity home, the Palmas haven’t had an opportunity to work on the building while it has been under construction within the college.

The family, however, will now have an opportunity to put finishing touches to the house over the next few months.

“With corporate partners and sponsors coming on to the site, the family will work with the team leads,” Gowans said.

They could be involved in projects such as painting, flooring, cabinets, landscaping or building a deck.